Blending systems are often utilized to create iced beverages, desserts and a wide variety of other food items. Commercial establishments use these blending systems to create these various food items. Typical blending systems include an ice shaving apparatus, flavor dispenser, blender and refrigeration system. Operators will utilize the blending system to shave ice, add flavoring and in some situations further blend the combination. These steps create the applicable food item.
In operation of such systems the ice shaver reduces larger ice cubes into small ice shavings. Next some kind of flavoring is dispensed into the shaved ice. The flavoring may be any sort of flavoring, including, without limitation, fruit juices, pureed fruit, coffee, and any other applicable flavoring. Once the operator adds the flavoring to the shaved ice, the combination may be blended together to further mix such. This may create a smooth drinkable combination.
The components of such blending systems are typically integrally formed i.e., the components are fixedly attached together. Moreover, in prior art blending systems the ice shaver and flavor dispenser are integral units whereby the contents of both are ultimately dispensed from a single dispenser.
Utilizing integrally formed components has several disadvantages. For example, if one of the components of the blending system fails to operate properly and it is unable to be repaired the entire blending system may have to be replaced as opposed to the single component. Further, cleaning the dispensing system with integrally formed components may be difficult. In such systems, one must disassemble as many of the components as feasible to clean. This may present additional challenges in that it is time consuming to disassemble and reassemble the components. Further still, the components in such systems are difficult to clean and may not come appropriately clean. As the components are intertwined, it may be difficult to reach certain components and appropriately clean such components. Also, cleaning such systems may require shutting down the entire system. This may result in all of the components being generally unavailable for use during the cleaning.
Another disadvantage is the combined dispenser for the ice and the flavoring. The combined use may make it difficult to appropriately clean the applicable dispenser. The combined dispenser may have remnants of prior flavoring used when dispensing ice. This may result in the ice not being pure.
Moreover, such blending systems often include a storage unit for storing flavorings or other liquid or puree foodstuffs to be mixed with the iced item. The storage unit may be a refrigerated unit or any unit configured to house the flavorings. Often storage units include racks for housing a plurality of different flavorings. Each rack may include one or more receptacles. Each receptacle may be configured to receive a flavoring container therein. For example, flavorings are often provided in a bag or a bag-in-box (BIB) packaging that may be placed within the receptacle and removed once the bag or flavoring container is empty and replaced with a new flavoring container.
Current designs for storage units commonly provide a level base for the box or bag of flavoring to rest on. The level base allows the flavoring container to rest evenly within the receptacle without the risk of tipping over or falling out of the receptacle. However, flavoring containers often fail to empty completely into the system and are often discarded before all the flavoring or liquid has been removed from the container. For example, some bags and other packaging are unable to fully drain the liquid into an engaging nozzle because the nozzle may be positioned above the bottom of the bag.